Confirmed 4 Nov 2026 · Governance A one-minute read
The New York Times put a number on what suing over AI costs: $12.6 million.
Its November 4 results disclose $3.8 million of AI litigation costs in the quarter and $12.6 million over 9 months. Caveat: that is its own legal spending, not damages.
The cost of the AI copyright fight was borne quietly by publishers.
One publisher now reports it quarterly, as a line investors read.
Why it matters
A publisher suing an AI company pays lawyers long before any ruling arrives. The Times now reports that bill every quarter, and it is rising: $3.8 million against $2.4 million a year earlier. Smaller publishers face the same arithmetic without 13.76 million subscribers behind them.
Established
- Quarterly AI litigation costs were $3.8 million pre-tax, against $2.4 million last year.
- Nine-month costs were $12.6 million pre-tax, or $9.3 million after tax.
- The company excludes these costs from adjusted operating profit.
Not established
- Any outcome in the case. The release names no court or ruling.
- AI licensing revenue. The release does not break it out.
- That other publishers spend similar amounts on the same fight.
The five-minute readThe record, the timeline, the weight and 3 sources
The record
The New York Times Company's third quarter results were issued as a press release dated New York, November 4, 2026 and filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission as an exhibit to a Form 8-K. We read it at sec.gov. The company discloses $3.8 million of pre-tax litigation-related costs in the quarter, $2.8 million after tax, or $0.02 a share, against $2.4 million pre-tax a year earlier, $1.8 million after tax and $0.01 a share. For the first 9 months the figure is $12.6 million pre-tax, $9.3 million after tax, or $0.06 a share, against $10.3 million pre-tax for the same period of 2025. The release says the costs relate to lawsuits alleging unlawful and unauthorised copying and use of the company's journalism in developing generative artificial intelligence products. The company treats them as a special item and excludes them from adjusted operating profit and adjusted operating costs. The rest of the quarter: total revenues of $768.5 million, up 9.7%; digital-only subscription revenues of $421.3 million, up 14.6%; 13.76 million total subscribers, of which 13.22 million are digital-only, with about 420,000 digital-only net additions; operating profit of $121.9 million, up 16.4%, a 15.9% margin; adjusted operating profit of $149.6 million, up 13.9%. Digital other revenues, which include affiliate, licensing and other, were $54.4 million in the quarter and $149.7 million over 9 months, and the release attributes the growth primarily to higher licensing without naming AI. Chief executive Meredith Kopit Levien does not mention AI in her quoted remarks, saying instead that as the information ecosystem continues to evolve the company's subscription strategy will only deepen with time. The forward-looking statements name risks associated with generative artificial intelligence technology. Not established: AI licensing revenue, the defendants' own costs, and any outcome in the litigation.
How it got here
- Dec 2023
The New York Times sues OpenAI and Microsoft over the use of its journalism to train models, the case that becomes the largest AI copyright action in the United States.
- Sep 4
All 3 sides ask one judge to end that case without a trial. Edition 013 carded the motions.
- Oct 1
A federal judge throws out the publishers' separate antitrust case against Google's AI summaries. Edition 039.
- Nov 2
The Times and 3 other publishers sue Brave Software in the Southern District of New York over AI answers and paywall circumvention.
- Nov 4
The quarterly release puts the pre-tax cost of the AI litigation at $3.8 million for the quarter and $12.6 million for 9 months.
Investors, who now have a quarterly line for the AI fight; OpenAI and Microsoft, whose own costs are not published; smaller publishers weighing the same suit without 13 million subscribers; the publishers suing Brave; and every finance chief at a news company asked what litigation will cost next year.
What to watch
- Would strengthen itThe Times reports full-year litigation-related costs above $16 million in its fourth quarter release, or another publisher discloses AI litigation costs as a separate line item, by February 28, 2027.
- Would weaken itThe Times stops reporting the costs as a special item, or the quarterly figure falls below $2 million, or the OpenAI case settles, by December 31, 2027.
Why it weighs this much
Cost is low in the only sense that matters here: the money is already spent, and $12.6 million over 9 months is about 1.6% of a single quarter's revenue, our arithmetic and not the company's. Commitment is medium, because a figure in a filed release cannot be walked back, but it binds the company to nothing beyond disclosure. Reversibility is moderate: a settlement would end the spending and the line item with it. Persistence is quarters rather than years, since the costs stop when the cases do, and summary judgment is already argued.
The words
- Special item
- A cost reported separately so investors can see the underlying business without it. Reporting it separately also makes it permanently visible.
- Pre-tax and after tax
- The cost before and after the tax relief it generates. The after-tax figure is what shareholders actually lose.
Sources
Your call
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